TeachArchives.org: Innovative Educational Website for Teaching with Primary Sources

Introducing TeachArchives.org
New-York Historical Society
May 6, 2014

Introductions
Julie Golia, PhD
Historian
TeachArchives.org co-founder and editor
Robin M. Katz, MLIS
Archivist
TeachArchives.org co-founder and editor
Students and Faculty in the Archives ● Brooklyn Historical Society

Introductions
• Your vitals (name, position)
• Your experience teaching with primary
sources
• Successes and challenges?

What is TeachArchives.org?
Innovative educational website offering a
tailored, hands-on approach to modeling
document analysis skills for students
– Innovative teaching philosophy
– Best practices for teaching in the archives
– Success stories
– Classroom-tested sample exercises
– Project documentation

Result of Students and Faculty in the Archives
– 3-year, postsecondary education program at Brooklyn
Historical Society
– Used primary sources to teach document analysis,
information literacy, and critical thinking skills in first-
year undergraduates
– 19 partner faculty at 3 schools
– 1,100 individual students
– 100+ class visits to BHS’s archives

Beginners need to be taught document
analysis
Our teaching philosophy
– Specific learning objectives
– Individual documents
• The fewer the better!
– Tailored small-group activities
– Directed, specific prompts
• Ex: “Why did Henry Ward Beecher write this letter?”
• Not “Who is the creator? What type of doc is this?”

Our Findings
– Independent evaluators have found that SAFA
students are more engaged, perform better, and - in
some cases - have higher retention rates than their
peers.
– Findings summarized on TeachArchives.org

Resources available on TeachArchives.org
– Innovative teaching philosophy
– Best practices for teaching in the archives
– Success stories
– Classroom-tested sample exercises
– Project documentation

TeachArchives.org:
Pedagogy
Museum educators, librarians and archivists
are vital resources for instructors of all
backgrounds
Take a central role in planning the archives
visit before, during, and after the visit

Pedagogy: Objectives vs.
Goals
Learning goals vs. learning objectives
– Why we came to find the distinction so important

Learning Goal: a statement that describes in
broad terms what a student will learn from
your course.
– adapted from http://www.oucom.ohiou.edu/fd/writingobjectives.pdf
Professors’ course goals are often universal
– For ex: improve student engagement, build a sense
of community
Goals

Learning Objectives
• Statement in specific and measurable terms that
describes what the student will know or be able
to do as a result of completing course activities.
– adapted from http://www.oucom.ohiou.edu/fd/writingobjectives.pdf
Goals

• Example: one history prof’s goals vs.
objectives
• GOAL (broader)
– Students will learn the unique history of the Civil
Rights movement in the North.
• OBJECTIVE (specific)
– In their final research paper, students will identify
and analyze the different issues, strategies, and
constituencies of the Civil Rights movement in the
North, as compared to the South.Students and Faculty in the Archives ● Brooklyn Historical Society
Goals

Consider requiring visit objectives from
instructors visiting N-YHS
Goals

To learn more, see
teacharchives.org/articles/learning-objectives
Goals

Pedagogy: Document
Selection
Document selection: how much?
– For first-year students, item level is best
– Small number of items for students
• Especially textual material
– Consider student interaction from beginning to end
• What is the journey students will take?
• Anticipate pitfalls and challenges
– Instructors need to be reminded: less is more!

As stewards of N-YHS collections, push
instructors to consider the student’s
encounter with docs:
– physical size
– condition or handling needs
– length of text
– legibility (especially handwriting)
– vocabulary
– visual literacy skills of students
Pedagogy: Document
Selection

Also remember:
– How much more contextual knowledge you and the
instructor have than the students
– The feeling of overwhelm in an archives
• Manageable vs. unmanageable
Pedagogy: Document
Selection

To learn more, see
teacharchives.org/articles/document-selection
Pedagogy: Document
Selection

Pedagogy: Context
Work with instructors to plan how to provide
context to students
– Our experience: not enough or too much context
– What context to provide is directly related to visit
objectives

Pedagogy: Context
Kinds of context students might need
– Historical
– Technical / Format
• Processes
• Paleography
– Collection Info
• Provenance or donor
• How organized
– What is a historical society/archives?

To learn more, see
teacharchives.org/articles/providing-context
Pedagogy: Context

Pedagogy: Handouts
Creating specific prompts: why tailoring your
student’s interaction with the documents is
important
– Generic questions like “what is this document,” “who
is the creator” can actually confuse students, inhibit
learning

Pedagogy: Handouts
Student prompts/handouts: why tailor?
• Primary source docs are infinitely interpretable – but
educators often do have a reading in mind
• Handouts should reflect specific visit objectives
• Tailored handouts help anticipate regularized
experience for students
• Rather than a facilitator providing context to students on a
piecemeal basis

Pedagogy: Handouts
Designing prompts/handouts
• Don’t create too long a handout
• Articulate to students that they should closely
observe and read the entire document
• Consider including context or other sources in the
handout

Pedagogy: Handouts
Who creates handouts for students?
– Work with participating instructors to tailor their
handouts to their specific learning objectives
– Consider creating in-house handouts that teachers
can use or adapt

To learn more, see
teacharchives.org/articles/creating-handouts
Pedagogy: Handouts

Visiting the Archives: Logistics
Matter!
Good logistics = good pedagogy
– A well planned visit to the archives leads to positive
learning experience; a visit that is not thought-
through often creates the opposite.
– As educators and stewards of the collections at your
institution, you are the experts on the logistics of
N-YHS
– Guide instructors through a series of questions that
will make or break a class visit

Class Visits: Our
Experience
What we did at BHS
– 1 – 3 visits is best (we had 1 - 7)
– Anywhere from <10 – 40+ students in attendance
– Faculty pre-select docs with staff help, requested 3
weeks ahead of time
– Staff pull, prep, cite, assess copyright, set up docs
– Staff greet class; review care/handling; occasionally
lecture; co-facilitate exercise & wrap-up

Class Visits: Setting Up
Room setup: things to think about
– Stations and groupings
• Rotate or not? Timing?
• Even groupings
• Sitting at table or standing with clipboards?
– Logistics
• Remember size, condition, other layout issues
– Independent or group work?
• Small groups of 3 - 4 students are ideal
– Tweak each time you teach

Class Visits: Care &
Handling
How to teach care and handling
– Not punitive, stress universality
– Policies vary, but see our example guidelines
• Have students read aloud
• Ask, “why?” or, “security or preservation?”
• Online at teacharchives.org/articles/care-and-handling
– What is an archives/historical society?
– Pre-visit experiment

Class Visits: Facilitation
Plan ahead with instructors
– Push teachers to overbudget time in agenda
• Determine when to arrive and leave
• Don’t forget intros and wrap-ups
• It takes students a while to physically move
– Groups allow for discussion, collaboration,
community building
• But consider the room, the size of the docs, how long
– What tools are needed?
– Spell out roles of faculty and staff

Class Visits: Facilitation
Push instructors to plan an effective wrap up
– Planning often overlooked by teachers
– Suggest ways entire class can reconvene and share
• Think about logistics again – move students to a place
where they can see and hear each other
• See one great idea at
teacharchives.org/exercises/impromptu-speeches
– Get involved – ask hard questions!

Class Visits: Follow up
Staff and instructors should clarify how/whether
students should come back to archives
independently after the group visit
– Our experiences: don’t make it optional
– Make sure there’s a clear objective for students to
return
– Make sure reference staff is prepared

To learn more, see:
teacharchives.org/articles/logistics
teacharchives.org/articles/wrap-up
Class Visits

Conclusion: Collaboration
Librarians and archivists, museum educators,
and other institutional staff bring essential
expertise
– Content knowledge
– History and theory of archives/collections
– Teaching experience in archives setting
– Extensive doc analysis skills
– Extensive logistical experience
You should be partners in shaping in-archives
curricula!Students and Faculty in the Archives ● Brooklyn Historical Society

Conclusion: Let’s Discuss
Questions? Concerns? Experiences and
challenges to share?

TeachArchives.org: Innovative Educational Website for Teaching with Primary Sources

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TeachArchives.org: Innovative Educational Website for Teaching with Primary Sources